When Joe Biden was running for office, he made a lot of promises. The president said he would cure cancer, turn down the toxicity between Republicans and Democrats, and more. Needless to say, it hasn’t happened.
In fact, Biden has been frequently accused of being willing to say anything just to get votes. Nevertheless, one of the many promises made by this president was to pardon individuals who were convicted of possessing weed.
As noted by Vice, these pardons have not yet materialized.
Another Broken Promise?
Thus far, it’s been over 100 days since the president committed to pardoning individuals with weed possession convictions. In spite of this, the applications for individuals to request said pardons are not presently available.
Back in October, the Justice Department claimed it would employ the necessary measures to expedite the logistics of these pardons. Without any applications made available, it is unclear exactly what the government is doing to make good on Biden’s commitment.
President Biden announced in October that he was pardoning all people convicted of simple cannabis possession at the federal level.
111 days later, the Justice Department still hasn't posted the application to obtain a pardon.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) January 26, 2023
The most that’s been said by the Department of Justice is that “official procedures” have to be seen through before the government can move forward with allowing people to apply for pardons.
On top of this, no timeline has been given for when “official procedures” will be handled so that pardon applications are available. Therefore, folks who were counting on the president to live up to his word may, unfortunately, be waiting in perpetuity.
A Bad Look For Biden
The president is taking heat for not even getting the ball rolling on this matter by opening up applications for pardons. Moreover, the censure is largely coming from folks who would otherwise be aligned with the president.
Sadly for Biden’s supporters, this won’t be his first time making big promises, only to fail to live up to them. During the 2020 presidential election, Biden said he would make community college free.
700 days into Biden’s presidency he has still not fulfilled most of his campaign promises:
– $15/hr min wage
– Kids out of cages
– Weed decriminalization
– Student debt cancellation
– Public option, Medicare expansion
– End support for genocide in Yemen
– End Trump’s tax cuts— Holding Biden Accountable (@WaitingOnBiden) December 20, 2022
However, early last year, the Biden administration walked back this commitment, notifying its base that free community college is no longer on the table. Ironically, when Biden first made the vow of free community college for all, conservatives warned it wasn’t feasible or fiscally responsible.
Of course, the president still has time to follow through on pardoning persons convicted of possession of weed. Whether or not Biden uses the remainder of his term to make good on his word remains to be seen.
However, the president doesn’t have the greatest track record. Therefore, Americans shouldn’t be shocked if pardon applications are not made available before Biden leaves office.
Do you believe Joe Biden will truly follow through with his promise to pardon individuals who are living with convictions for weed possession? We’d like to know your predictions about what comes next in the comments area.
